It's refreshing to see a media corporation held accountable for its slimy behavior for once, even it it took a billionaire with a grudge to make that happen.

I don't agree with Thiel's politics in general, but he and the court were right on this issue. The world needs fewer corporations making money by outing people and publishing their private sex tapes.

Gotta a problem?
Blame the judge & jury.
They were the ones to "blame" if you want to avoid Gawker's role.

Funny how all those other media outlets who have pissed off the wealthy do not get sued into oblivion, but the one that outs people, accuses them of horrible acts without a shred of evidence, and publishes a stolen sex tape while publicly and proudly refusing a judge's order to take it down does get sued.

It is very confusing, so I guess it must be the billionaire's fault.

I guess time really does heal all feuds

@3 Gawker did a little more than piss off a billionaire. They were fucking despicable in showing Hogan's sex tape and deserved to get shit stomped for it.

People also forget they routinely outed gay men for kicks and also salaciously directly linked to the hacked nude photos of the celebrities of the infamous "fappening" - while simultaneously chastising people who were hosted or viewed them.

It sucks that a billionaire can shut down the press.

But there is no good guy here. Gawker was fucking cesspool and deserved what they got.

And nothing of value was lost.

Based on comments I've been reading,
the young self-proclaimed "progressive" writers at SLOG
must be getting mighty annoyed with us right-wing capitalist pig racist extremists
(the very few, the very brave)
who comment, and often enough represent a majority.

Don't forget Choire Sicha's swan song, a "decade" in review a year before Lehman Brothers bit it.

http://gawker.com/334551/what-happened-t…

I dunno. Yeah, Gawker sucked. I never really read it much myself so won't really mind its passing. So maybe Nick Denton et al. just really had this coming.

On the other hand, can we all agree that Peter Thiel is basically a James Bond supervillain/member of the Legion of Doom in real life? The whole creepy "I want to live forever off the blood of youths" deal? And this whole episode just goes to show that, man, can he ever carry a grudge.

Yeah, it's true that Hogan did have a case. Gawker was in the wrong. Yadda yadda yadda.

But this is kinda why the ACLU will defend the KKK in court. Because now this particular evil billionaire would-be transhuman overlord knows he can crush his perceived enemies. And he's just the bastard to keep on doing it until someone stops him. And don't think for a minute that the justice system, especially civil litigation, isn't massively tilted in favor of those with mountains of cash.

My guess is that his next victim probably won't be quite as unsympathetic.

given those boring ass excerpts posted as "the best" or "good" or "whatever", that shit will not be missed

@9: The funny part is, Gawker supporters (or Thiel haters too, I guess) whine that a rich guy funded a lawsuit that Denton and Co. could not fight monetarily while forgetting that Denton is also a really rich guy who has done the same to others.

God forbid Denton and Gawker are not the ones bullying other people in court with their deep pockets, funded by Russian oligarchs (don't forget that part as well in this hypocrisy sandwich).

This is not some David vs. Goliath, Good vs. Evil, Suppression vs. Free Speech fight. This was Slimy asshole A vs. Slimy asshole B.

At the end of the day, Thiel would never have had a leg to stand on had Gawker Media not done so many horrid, unethical, and illegal things over the years. They had their day in court and lost on the merits of their shitty, despicable behavior.

The death of Gawker really is a shred of good news. Now if TMZ would die...

@Corydon: And don't think for a minute that the justice system, especially civil litigation, isn't massively tilted in favor of those with mountains of cash.

Right, and that's exactly what Denton was counting on when he refused to remove Hogan's private video, before he learned that Thiel was funding Hogan's lawsuit.

Not mentioned? Their horrible "Gawker Stalker" app that encouraged people to stalk and post the location of celebrities in real time. Something Emily Gould defended because "celebrities have piles of money."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-avakrR…

"Today we're launching the next step in inane celebrity drooling: Gawker Stalker Maps, in which we try visually pinpoint the location of every stalkworthy celebrity as soon as they're spotted. According to Lloyd Grove's column today, celebrity publicists like Leslie Sloan Zelnick and Ken Sunshine think our new venture is disgusting. If we were unkind people, we might say the same about their clients' work. But we won't."

Such edgy journalism!